Best electricity tariff for a solar PV/battery set up: Octopus Flux / Intelligent Flus versus Agile

alexanderalexander

It seems to be widely agreed that Octopus Flux / Intelligent Flux is one of the best tariffs for someone with a solar PV and battery set up. However, despite reading a couple of threads on this topic I still don’t understand why it is better than the Octopus Agile tariff (where the price changes every half hour) combined with an automated intelligent management (such as that provided by Wonder Watt or similar).

Surely with the Agile tariff, automated intelligent management means that you can optimise the prices at which you draw from and discharge to the grid even more than you do with the Flux tariff. But am I missing something?

greenbee

There are people here with more experience than me, but it seems a lot of people move from Flux/IoF in the winter to Agile when export levels are low. With Agile you have a fixed export tariff (15p), whereas with Flux you have the opportunity to earn more by exporting at peak rate as export is also variable. There is no guarantee on Agile that import costs will be below export revenue (they haven't been for the last few days), whereas Flux always gives you the option to import at a low rate overnight and export at a higher rate during peak demand. 

I'm not familiar with IoF as I don't have a compatible battery, so can't comment on that. 

alexanderalexander

Thank you for that @greenbee

For me, however, Agile export tariffs do appear to be variable, and there are some very attractive export rates on offer at peak times. See below for today's peak export rates, for example.

I should also add that I have a very high electricity consumption house (it doesn't have gas and it has six adult residents) so I would be over-sizing my battery relative to the number of solar panels specifically in order to take advantage of cheap import rates. 

debitcardmayhem

If you want agile I would combine it with fixed outgoing, 15p all day. I am on flux, and top the battery up 0200-500 , but the off peak(median) outgoing is lower than the imported 13+ vs 15+ , before oct it used to be the other way round. Basically they only want your power between 1600-1900 @ 27.05p.

I am looking to switch to agile, but this time of year is no wind/sun no plunge pricing, I am waiting till mid-end of Nov, also gas prices have been edging up, but I am sure the generators using gas are fully hedged, but they could be burning a lot of it this week, eg at the mo 57% of leccy is gas… only 10% wind.

* the problem of exporting between 1600-1900 now is when the DFS kicks in leeway is lower, last year I got 100 punds of Octoplus, but after the new year I was hospitalised and couldn’t take advantage.


EDIT Just checked tomorrow’s agile for eastern england and the lowest is 17.4 …. 4p more than flux. 
Still I wont be put off unless there are 4weeks of prices like this.

greenbee

I looked at Agile export, but decided that for now I want to focus getting import right and not worry too much about export. I've got a full-on, full-time job that pays me more than I could earn by spending time getting the balance right. Maybe at some point when I've got the hang of my usage and import I might consider it. 

EcoScruples

Can’t find it talked about anywhere but the new export pricing from Octopus on the Flux tariff from April is not great, dropping from almost 14ppkw to 10ppkw…….. which is when most of my export is.

Octopus Go coupled with outgoing? Although I don’t have an EV so not sure how easy it is to get onto Go.

QrizB

EcoScruples said:

Can’t find it talked about anywhere ...

This thread (still on the front page) might interest you:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6596494/octopus-flux-april-25-ouch

Also, looking at the OP's posts, I'm not sure looking at a single day of Agile Outgoing prices in isolation is particularly helpful.

You can find year-long data on Agile Outgoing here:

https://energy-stats.uk/octopus-agile-outgoing-export-southern-england/

Qyburn

EcoScruples said:

Octopus Go coupled with outgoing? Although I don’t have an EV so not sure how easy it is to get onto Go.

That's what I'm on, if our meter had been working it would have suited us really well over Winter as an overnight battery charge would cover pretty much all our use. Eon have equivalent tariffs with better rates, and explicitly stated that you're eligible for the EV tariffs if you have solar/battery but no EV.

dc1606

We we have installed solar panels with 3 fox ess batteries and an air source heat pump. Currently all the energy produced and stored is used. I am totally confused as to which Octopus electricity tariff to use we have no gas now. Maybe in the summer months we may be in a position to export but it seems we don’t need to at the moment. The Octopus website is confusing on which tariff to use. Any suggestions please? To complicate things we may get an EV in a year or so.

Qyburn

This third party web site uses your actual usage data to compare what the various import/export tariffs would have cost/paid. A weakness is that it can't account for changing behaviour, like me charging battery overnight which of course I wouldn't do it there was no cheap time.

https://www.octopriceuk.app/compare

dc1606

Thanks will give it a try.